Plantains and Bacon

I like the conversations I get to have at the store when people don’t know what I’m buying. I’m so used to, well, being me, that I sometimes forget others don’t live or see things the way I do. Like to me it’s obvious that this is a plantain-not a banana. But I get a lot of questions when I go to ring them up. “What is this?” Then they have to search for the plu number to type in. I’ve been through this so many times, I’ve finally just started to tell them. “How do you cook this?” “What’s it taste like?” It’s not sweet?!?!” Last week I had maybe my favorite conversation. My clerk was a young man and he prompted me with some good questions. Asking me initially what I intended to do with them, he next went into, “How?” How did I learn about them? What made me start buying them? It took me a moment. How did I find out about plantains? Sometimes I just know things. Then I think more…..hmm. Just researching food and food recipes. I went on to explain to the young man that I often buy strange foods and stump my cashier. I like to experiment. Try new things. Comfort zones care the shit out of me and so I enjoy being adventurous with my food. At the market I have the reputation of constantly changing and playing around with what I make. Being a little ballsy sometimes with the ingredients I’ll use for baking. It’s fun. And so today I decided to post some plantains, because I’ve learned many people do not know about them, let alone to do with them. They’re not sweet. I think this is the thing I repeat most often, because people typically think they taste like a banana since they look like a banana. So here you have them tossed in bacon.

Plantains and Bacon

4 slices of bacon

1 plantain

sea salt

Let’s Make it Happen: Fry up bacon. I have taken lately to using kitchen shears (they look like scissors for the kitchen) to cut the bacon up before frying it, rather than waiting for it to cool and cut later. While it’s cooking, begin to work on the plantain. My favorite method is to slice it in half, length-wise. Peel or cut off the skin. Now cut it further into slice. Once the bacon is out of the pan, toss the plantains in there. Season with sea salt. Allow them to crisp up on both sides. Strain the bacon grease. Mix bacon and plantains in a bowl. Eat up!